brat1
/brat
/noun derogatory or humorous
A child, typically one that is badly behaved: she’s been acting like a spoiled brat all evening presumably this is where people dump their brats so they can shop in relative peace...
- I've helped bring up the brats children of friends etc., although obviously that's no real comparison with the real thing.
- But the all-out award for nauseating singing has to go to the demonic brats who attend England Schoolboy matches.
- They will boycott classes and become violent at the flimsiest of excuses and generally behave like spoilt brats.
Synonyms
badly behaved child, spoilt child;
rascal, wretch, imp, whippersnapper;
minx, chit
informal monster, horror
North American informal hellion
archaic jackanapes
Derivatives
brattish
/ adjective ...- ‘I was a very brattish child who needed something to do,’ he says.
- The 25-year-old has revitalised a team that was beginning to show its age, and with this a certain jaundice, before the breathtaking pace and ability that are wrapped up in his bold and brattish approach began to be felt.
- It might seem brattish to some, but I was young, in London and ready to party.
brattishness
- All too often, John serves up a kind of tantrummy brattishness, laced with a considerable dollop of self-pity.
- She is especially vigilant for the first signs of the brattishness that sometimes afflicts children.
- All those years of brattishness are finally showing up on your face.
Origin
Mid 16th century: perhaps an abbreviation of synonymous Scots bratchet, from Old French brachet 'hound, bitch'; or perhaps from dialect brat 'rough garment, rag', based on Old Irish bratt 'cloak'.
Rhymes
brat2
/brat/noun US informal
A bratwurst sausage: burgers, fries, ribs, brats, potato salad, pies—you name it this spread had it
Origin
1940s: abbreviation.